{"id":4507,"date":"2022-02-09T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=26473"},"modified":"2022-02-09T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T09:13:15","slug":"a-19th-century-cottage-filled-with-dark-colours-and-interesting-antiques","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/a-19th-century-cottage-filled-with-dark-colours-and-interesting-antiques\/","title":{"rendered":"A 19th-century cottage filled with dark colours and interesting antiques"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Molly Malsom\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 09 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u2018Look out for the house with the blue door<\/a>,\u2019 says Eniko Kirkwood, as she gives directions to her home in Comber, near Belfast, which she shares with her husband, Michael, and their two labradors. By the time we arrive, however, the blue door, with its deep Arts and Crafts<\/a> hinges, has been transformed, and is now a spring-like leaf green.<\/p>\n

\u2018Things change all the time in this house,\u2019 she says. One month, guests might be admiring a new floral wallpaper. A few weeks later, it\u2019s an adventurous paint effect in a bedroom.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s clear that Eniko, a Hungarian-born interpreter, who felt instantly welcome in Northern Ireland, regards her home as a canvas. \u2018I\u2019m always gathering ideas and inspiration for different looks in magazines and online,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019ll confess that I don\u2019t enjoy the process of painting and decorating, but I do like putting the brush down, standing back and seeing the final effect.\u2019<\/p>\n

Set at the end of a quiet lane, the semi-detached cottage sits opposite a sprawling Victorian pile once occupied by Northern Ireland\u2019s second Prime Minister, John Andrews, whose brother, Thomas, was the chief designer of the Titanic<\/i>. \u2018Our home was probably built in the 1890s for farm workers on the estate,\u2019 says Eniko, adding that the three-bedroom house was not actually their first choice. \u2018We\u2019d set out to buy a detached property but, one day, Michael mentioned that this house was up for sale. It\u2019s 10 minutes away from his parents\u2019 home, in a lovely area where he used to play as a child.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was the bucolic County Down setting, with a duck pond and a river crossed by a bridge, and shaded by tall trees, that captured Eniko\u2019s imagination even before she had stepped inside. \u2018I said, \u201cThis is it, I don\u2019t even need to see the house\u201d, as I\u2019d fallen for the area.\u2019 Houses in the hidden hamlet, a five-minute walk from town, rarely come up for sale, so a bidding war ensued \u2013 the Kirkwoods emerged victorious.<\/p>\n

The previous owners had bolted on the light-filled kitchen<\/a> and dining room extension that overlooks the long garden at the back of the house. Upstairs, they added the bathroom and bedroom, which lead to a roof terrace above. They\u2019d also painted everything \u2013 walls, doors, ceilings, joinery \u2013 in varying shades of white and magnolia. All of which suited Eniko perfectly. \u2018Everything was so neutral that it was easy to change and make my own, without spending too much.\u2019<\/p>\n

For inspiration, she turned to interior designer Abigail Ahern, the doyenne of brooding interiors. \u2018I\u2019d been toying with the idea of a traditional cottage look, but then I spotted one of her dark schemes and I knew I wanted a room like that.\u2019 The snug, with its pretty Victorian fireplace<\/a>, was the first to be transformed with a coat of deep blue paint. \u2018My husband\u2019s initial reaction was not positive. But he loved the result.\u2019 Emboldened, they pooled their skills to bring atmosphere to the living room, now a monochrome mix of black walls with crisp, white woodwork. \u2018It\u2019s our favourite room,\u2019 she says. \u2018It feels like a cocoon.\u2019<\/p>\n

This is a house where everyone pitches in, so when Eniko\u2019s mother and stepfather visited from Hungary, they found themselves perched on ladders, repainting the nondescript cupboards in the kitchen a deep, dark blue. The overhead units were removed and replaced with simple open shelves, now filled with bright crockery. \u2018I love that busy-kitchen look,\u2019 Eniko says.<\/p>\n

The style here is an exuberant mix of influences from contemporary high street to traditional. \u2018I don\u2019t have a particular look and that\u2019s why every room feels different. I like a bit of everything: Scandi<\/a>, boho, eclectic\u2026 It would be safe to say I\u2019m a maximalist,\u2019 she says. Although the decoration is new, a great deal of the furniture and objects are antique. \u2018It was my grandmother who really started my love of anything old. Some of my favourite pieces, like the oil lamps and an antique coffee grinder, came from her. They all have stories to tell.\u2019<\/p>\n

With a keen eye for an overlooked gem, Eniko frequents local antiques shops<\/a> and reclamation yards<\/a>, as well as eBay and Gumtree. Apart from the deep velvet sofas<\/a> \u2013 \u2018I have a thing about them\u2019, she admits \u2013 nothing here cost more than \u00a3500. \u2018Not everything is that old, it just has to have the right feel.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fitted wardrobes have been removed in favour of freestanding versions, which Eniko feels add more personality. A glass-fronted cabinet in the living room was a present from Michael and, in the kitchen, the convivial dining table was once a prop on Game of Thrones.<\/i> The dresser, revamped with a coat of dark paint, came from a vintage shop<\/a> in the Lake District. Underfoot, the wide wooden flooring is reclaimed, \u2018It\u2019s the only thing we didn\u2019t do ourselves,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, the bathroom was given a Victorian feel with encaustic-effect tiles, houseplants and a claw-foot bath. The melting, ombr\u00e9 tones of the main bedroom, tucked under the eaves, were an experiment. \u2018I\u2019d seen this look on a paint company\u2019s website. I went online and found a tutorial on YouTube. It didn\u2019t start well, so I developed my own technique using three different paints.\u2019 Another bedroom has a soft limewash. As Eniko stands back to survey the result, she says, \u2018I like it now, but it\u2019ll probably be very different next year!\u2019<\/p>\n

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